Government to review Google's anti-piracy promise - report

The department for culture, media and sport (DCMS) is to review Google’s promise to punish sites proven to infringe copyright by pushing down their rankings in its search results.

The search giant made the pledge in August, but entertainment groups have since complained that top Google search results remain dominated by pirate sites.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, said: "Google said it would stop putting the worst pirate sites at the top of search results. Yet three months into the much-vaunted algorithm change, many of these illegal sites are still dominating search results for music downloads.

"We are talking to Google to try to establish why this is the case. With the launch of music in Google Play, now is the time to build a genuine partnership and for Google to show the world that it loves music. This means Google must stop dragging its feet and giving profile to illegal sites that it knows rip off everyone working in music."

The government now says it will examine the technical changes promised by Google, raising the prospect of fresh legislation that would force Google to downgrade the pirated material.

Google maintained that it was taking action against piracy websites and had demoted millions of sites every month. A spokesman said: "We continue to work closely with the industry to protect rights holders and their material.

“Sites with high numbers of removal notices are now more likely to appear lower in our results, we've made it easier to report pirated material and now take down more than seven million infringing links per month."

It is understood that the government will meet with Google, internet service providers, and rights holders before Christmas to discuss online piracy.